Emil Cioran Quotes

1911–1995 France

Emil Cioran (8 April 1911 – 20 June 1995) was a Romanian philosopher and essayist whose work is known for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, which frequently engages with issues of suffering, decay, and nihilism.

France
Academics
Educators
Essayists
Philosophers

Also known as: Cioran, Cioran, Emile, E. M. Cioran, Emile Cioran

Random Emil Cioran quote

487 quotes

What I know wreaks havoc upon what I want.

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

A human being possessed by a belief and not eager to pass it on to others is a phenomenon alien to the earth, where our mania for salvation makes life unbreathable.

A Short History of Decay (1949)

If death is as horrible as is claimed, how is it that after the passage of a certain period of time we consider happy any being, friend or enemy, who has ceased to live?

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

If we could sleep twenty-four hours a day, we would soon return to the primordial slime, the beatitude of that perfect torpor before Genesis-the dream of every consciousness sick of itself.

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

"What is truth?" is a fundamental question. But what is it compared to "How to endure life?" And even this one pales beside the next: "How to endure oneself?" — That is the crucial question in which no one is in a position to give us an answer.

Drawn and Quartered (1983)

Speech and silence. We feel safer with a madman who talks than with one who cannot open his mouth.

The New Gods (1969)

How many disappointments are conducive to bitterness? One or a thousand, depending on the subject.

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

The worst is not ennui nor despair but their encounter, their collision. To be crushed between the two!

Drawn and Quartered (1983)

The more one has suffered, the less one demands. To protest is a sign one has traversed no hell.

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

Philosophy offers an antidote to melancholy. And many still believe in the depth of philosophy!

All Gall Is Divided (1952)

What can be said, lacks reality. Only what fails to make its way into words exists and counts.

Drawn and Quartered (1983)

All philosophers should end their days at Pythia's feet. There is only one philosophy, that of unique moments.

The Book of Delusions (1936)

Society is not a disease, it is a disaster. What a stupid miracle that one can live in it.

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Opinions, yes; convictions, no. That is the point of departure for an intellectual pride.

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

In order to deceive melancholy, you must keep moving. Once you stop, it wakens, if in fact it has ever dozed off.

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

I am displeased with everything. If they made me God, I would immediately resign.

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

My mission is to see things as they are. Exactly the contrary of a mission.

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

Why don't I commit suicide? Because I am as sick of death as I am of life.

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

Without God, everything is nothingness; and with God? Supreme nothingness.

All Gall Is Divided (1952)

I long to be free — desperately free. Free as the stillborn are free.

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Emil Cioran (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.